Note about this route from before Syncro Safari, Death Valley '05:This trip is a large loop and provides access to highly varied terrain and a visit to the “ghost town” of Rhyloite. The routes planned are pretty predictable and change less from year to year than some other in the park. At Chloride City we’ll 4x4 to and around various mining ruins and then take the easy dirt road into Nevada to visit Rhyolite. Anticipate lunch at Rhyolite and then head west back into California through the SPECTACULAR Titus Canyon. This part of the route is expected to be easy and may not even require 4WD. Titus Canyon is a “slot canyon” with vertical stone walls on both sides, 100 feet high and a narrow sandy wash to drive on at the bottom. Driving through Titus Canyon is an experience not to be missed. If we start early and don’t linger too much, after we finish Titus Canyon, there may be enough time to visit one of your choice of several nearby attractions such as Ubehebe Crater, Scotty’s Castle, Devil’s Cornfield, Stovepipe Wells, or Death Valley Sand Dunes.

Here’s some trail information from a published trail guide:

Excerpt of the route from Death Valley SUV Trails, by Roger Mitchell (Copyright 2001). With some notes.Chloride City & Rhyolite Primary Attraction:An historic mining camp of the 1870s, with great views of Death Valley all the way to Mt. Whitney and the Sierra crest.

Time Required: This is pretty much an all day trip out of either Beatty or Stovepipe Wells, particularly if you hike down to the Monarch Mine. [Jim’s note: We don’t plan to spend that much time here.]

Miles Involved: It is sixteen miles of highway from Beatty to the turnoff, and then another seven into Chloride City . [Jim’s note: We’ll be coming from Furnace Creek, so more highway miles (about 25). We’ll enter the Chloride area on the more difficult route and exiting the Chloride area by the easier easterly route.]

Degree of Difficulty: Of the dirt road portion, about half is Class II, and about half an easy Class III.

This old mining camp is an easy day trip out of either Stovepipe Wells or Beatty. The best road into Chloride City comes south off Highway 95 near Beatty, but that is out of the way for many people visiting Death Valley. A more convenient way in may be off the Daylight Pass Road northeast of the Stovepipe Wells Resort. The road is no worse than Class III.

ChlorideCity arose out of silver discoveries in Chloride Cliff in 1873, the earliest of all the Death Valley mines. The mines of this small community struggled for a few years, but by 1880 none were working and everyone had moved on. The Rhyolite excitement of 1904 brought in new capital. The Chloride Cliff Mine was bought by investors in nearby Rhyolite and reopened in 1908. In the following years sufficient ore was produced to warrant the construction of a cyanide mill in 1916. It is questionable whether that investment paid off, because by 1918 the camp was deserted again.

From downtown Beatty take State Highway 374 southwest towards Death Valley. Before leaving town the highway passes the local Death Valley information office where the latest road information can be obtained. At a point three and a half miles outside Beatty, the highway passes the huge Bullfrog Mine operated by the Barrick Corporation until 1999. During the good times, in 1997, Barrick had 289 employees at the Bullfrog Mine. They produced 206,571 ounces of gold and 351,348 ounces of silver. By 1999 those figures had dropped to 52 employees turning out a mere 76,159 ounces of gold and 90,967 ounces of silver. By 2000 the mine was closed.

Just beyond the mine, a side road goes right up the hill to the site of Rhyolite, just a couple of miles to the west. Rhyolite certainly warrants a visit.

Rhyolite’s origin goes back to February of 1905 when promoters left out of the Bullfrog boom selected a site a mile away, drew up a plat map, named streets, and subdivided the land into lots. To attract business and settlement, free parcels were offered to merchants; the ploy worked. Within three months the basin contained a sea of white tents, and within a year Rhyolite had eclipsed its slightly older neighbor, Bullfrog, just a mile to the southwest. In 1906 the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad extended its tracks to Rhyolite. By 1907 the town of only two years had a population of 6,000. By this time Rhyolite had substantial buildings made of wood and stone, and at least one made of empty bottles (it still stands as a museum). However late in 1907, a financial panic spread across the nation and, with the loss of financial support, many of Rhyolite ‘5 mines closed, many to never open again. With this bursting of the bubble of optimism, the citizens of Rhyolite drifted away. By the 1910 census, Rhyolite only had a population of 700; by the 1920 census, nobody was left.Nevada Highway 374 crosses the flat expanse of the Amargosa Valley and begins a steady climb into the mountains to the southwest. The state line is crossed at a point 12.7 miles from downtown Beatty. The sign is so tiny that most people miss it. A 4,317’ low point in the mountains, Daylight Pass is thirteen miles out of Beatty. Daylight Pass makes a convenient geographical boundary between the Grapevine Mountains to the north and the Funeral Mountains to the south. Note your odometer reading at the pass. Just 2.7 miles beyond the summit look for a desert road going off to the left. The National Park Service has marked it with the customary jeep symbol. This is the turnoff to Chloride City. (If you are coming from the Death Valley side, the turnoff is 3.4 miles above Hell’s Gate.)

The well-defined Class II road heads south and east. After two miles a side road to the left goes to Keane Spring. The Park Service has closed the road to vehicle traffic, although it is an easy hike of less than a mile. As small as it is, this spring has been a reliable source of water. During the 1906 Rhyolite Excitement when miners came flocking into these mountains by the thousands, a small village developed around this water hole. Although short-lived, Keane Spring once had a boarding house, livery stable, and of course, a saloon. Even the Porter Brothers, who had a large general store in nearby Rhyolite, opened a branch here. When the “Bank Panic of 1907” dried up venture capitol, Keane Spring did not dry up, but the town did. A few years later a flash flood came down the wash and dispersed what little remained.

The road now begins a gradual descent and within a quarter of a mile you will be in the Monarch Canyon wash. The road goes to the left, but there is an interesting side trip right down into the confining walls of Monarch Canyon. At one time this road went down to the Monarch Mine, discovered in 1905 and worked off and on until World War II. Today you can take a vehicle down the canyon only 0.7 miles where you will encounter the mother of all road washouts. Nevertheless, this wash makes a fine campsite (in good weather) suitable for a 4x4 club outing. From the present day road’s end one can hike down the canyon, past the spring a mile or so to the well preserved mine.

Back on the main Chloride Cliff road, within a quarter of a mile, a spring and a water tank are passed on the left. The road now deteriorates to Class III as it cuts across the grain of the landscape. On the hillsides to the right, mines and prospect holes begin to appear. After two miles it returns to Class II. At a point 2.6 miles beyond the water tank, a major road intersection is reached; this is Chloride Junction. The Class I road to the left heads north to Highway 95 and Beatty. For Chloride City you will want to turn to the right. The route has once again deteriorated to Class III.

Within 0.7 miles a ridge top is reached with good views northeast into the Amargosa Valley of Nevada. To the west are some of Chloride City’s outlying mines, and beyond on the distant skyline, the crest of the Sierra Nevada Range. At a point 1.1 miles from Chloride Junction, the road forks at a viewpoint overlooking the site of Chloride City. Keep to the left another quarter of a mile and you will be in what was once “downtown”.

Chloride City has had a checkered past of boom and bust. It all started in the early 1 870s when A.J. Franklin discovered silver ore on what was to become Chloride Cliff.

In his book Mines of Death Valley, Death Valley historian Burr Belden tells about the miners having to go 250 miles to the nearest grocery store in Barstow, California. Ten years later the road blazed in those days was adopted in part by mule trains from both the Eagle Borax Works, as well as the Harmony Borax Works. There were also several skirmishes between the miners and Paiute Indians in this part of the Funeral Range. Because of its remote location, the Franklin Mine could not be operated profitably, and it eventually closed in the late l870s.

Not much happened here for the next 25 years, even though the silver mines of Panamint City, Lookout, Darwin and Cerro Gordo were going strong. The Rhyolite excitement of 1905 spurred new interest in the district, although the San Francisco earthquake dried up venture capital and with it the mines of Chloride City closed. The bank panic of 1907 depressed the price of silver, keeping the mines idle. By 1908 a few small mines reopened, and in 1916 Chloride City had its first cyanide mill. That operation was closed by 1918, but its foundations still remain. Since then, there have been several renewed efforts to wrestle the mineral wealth from these barren hills.

Most of the gold and silver ores were low grade, containing one half ounce or less per ton; nevertheless, it was sometimes economically feasible to mine it because the veins were so large. The major mines of the district were the Big Bell, Frisco, Gold Dollar, Chloride Cliff and the Keane Wonder Mines. The latter had production in excess of a million dollars. Because of their dangerous condition, the National Park Service has installed sturdy fencing over the entrance to many of these mines. Only the most foolhardy would try to enter.

Today Chloride City consists of a few wooden shacks of questionable ancestry, mines and tailings piles aplenty, and of course scattered dumps of rusting tin cans. The camp’s only grave marks the final resting-place of one James McKay.

After wandering around Chloride City proper, be sure to drive three quarters of a mile to the ridge top beyond the town. The view is grand and glorious. Not only can you look down upon much of Death Valley, including the sand dunes and that great slash in the Panamints caused by Cottonwood Canyon, but if the day is clear, you can clearly see the 14,495 foot summit of Mount Whitney, eighty miles away on the western skyline.

There are sufficient back roads and old mines in the Chloride City area to keep one engaged the whole day. It should prove to be an enjoyable day. Titus CanyonPrimary Attraction: Titus Canyon has a little something for everyone: interesting geology, the site of a short-lived mining camp, and some very colorful desert scenery. Do not go into Titus Canyon seeking solitude. It is one of the most popular dirt road destinations in the park. Do check with a ranger before attempting Titus Canyon. Because of the flash flooding hazard in the narrows, the National Park Service tends to close the road during the summer months, and at the slightest hint of rain. During the winter, snow on White and Red Pass summits can close the road. This is a one way road only. You must start at the Nevada end going downhill into Death Valley.

Time Required:You will want to allow at least a half a day for this outing . [Jim’s Note: We’ll be spending less time at the “town sites” along the first portion of the route and lingering in the last mile or so where the canyon narrows. By the time we get to the canyon, we’ll have seen plenty of old mines and town sites.]

Miles Involved:The distance is about 33 miles from Beatty down to the floor of Death Valley. The dirt road portion is 26.4 miles in length. [Jim’s note: We don’t expect to go all the way east to Beatty, only to Rhyolite, so we’ll cut off a few miles here.]

Degree of Difficulty:The first nine miles of dirt road have a wash-board surface, but the entire Titus Canyon road is generally Class I, with perhaps only a few Class II spots. Drivers should be watchful for large rocks in the roadway. I had great reservations about including Titus Canyon in this book about jeep trails and back roads. The National Park Service has posted the road with a jeep symbol, recommending the route for high clearance vehicles with four-wheel drive. In reality, however, this is a very good road by backcountry standards. You will be disappointed if you seek a “challenge” in your route selection. By all other standards, Titus Canyon is an outstanding excursion worthy of your time.

The canyon takes its name from Morris Titus, a tenderfoot-mining engineer who perished here in the summer of 1906 while prospecting with two companions.

F rom Beatty take Nevada State Route 374 southwest towards the park. Four miles from town, just past the modern day Bullfrog Mine, a paved side road right goes to the ghost town of Rhyolite. A visit to this historic camp is highly recommended.

At a point 2.1 miles beyond the road into Rhyolite, watch for a graded dirt road turning right, heading westward. Turn right here, and note your odometer reading. Within two miles you will enter Death Valley National Park. A park service sign announces that camping is not permitted anywhere along the Titus Canyon Road.

In its first six miles the graded road gradually climbs 800 vertical feet up the alluvial fan before entering the Grapevine Mountains. Once the wash is entered, the country becomes more interesting. < > Many of the peaks are actually volcanic plugs, the hardened material in the throat of a volcano left exposed after the cone has weathered away.

A very common plant along the roadside here is ephedra, sometimes called Squaw Tea or Mormon Tea. There are seven species of ephedra in California, five of which are found within the park. Three of those five species are found here on White Pass: the very common Ephedra viridis, the less common, but still abundant, Ephedra nevadensis, and Ephedrafunerea, which is on the California Native Plant Society’s list of rare and endangered plants. Originally it was thought to grow only in the Funeral Mountains near Ryan, but in recent years it has been found here in the Grapevine Mountains and in San Bernardino County as well.

At a point 12.8 miles from the pavement, the summit of White Pass is reached. The elevation here is slightly over 5,100 feet. Winter snows can sometimes cause the Park Service to close this road for a few days.

In the next two miles, the road descends some five hundred feet through layers of green, red, and black sediments. This is the upper basin of Titanothere Canyon, so named for a large rhinoceros-like animal that roamed this area < > old fossilized remains of this critter were excavated from the red sandstone member of the Titus Canyon Formation near Leadville in 1933. The Oligocene landscape was much different than what you see today. In those prehistoric times this was a savanna-like terrain, with lakes and slow sluggish streams around which the plant-eating animals browsed and the carnivores hunted for prey. Other fossil animals uncovered in these beds were camel-like creatures, deer, tapirs, dogs and various rodents.

From the low point, the road now switchbacks back up through layers of red sediments to the colorful summit of 5,250’ Red Pass. This is the high point of the road, an ideal place to stop and enjoy the expansive views. Once you get down into Titus Canyon, that feeling of wide-open space will be lost.

The road descends Red Pass for the next three miles, passing a number of prospect holes, to come to the site of Leadville 15.4 miles in from Highway 374. The Bullfrog excitement brought prospectors through here in 1905. Specimens of lead and copper minerals were found, and claims were filed, but the remoteness of the area and the low-grade ore combined to discourage mining. All was quiet until 1924 when there became renewed interest in the lead deposits. An individual by the name of John Salsberry raised some capital and formed a company known as Western Lead Mines. He bought twelve claims in 1925 and he staked forty more. Salsberry had one crew digging prospect holes in the upper part of Titus Canyon, while another crew was building a road in from Beatty.

In 1926, at the peak of the “Roaring Twenties”, an oil man from Los Angeles by the name of Charles Julian wrestled control of Western Lead Mines, and set out to promote his new company’s stock. Like some modem day real estate promotions, he induced potential investors to come out to Titus Canyon for a free meal and a tour of the mine. By this time the road started by Salsberry had been completed. For those investors who did not choose the rigors of driving to Death Valley, Julian chartered a fifteen car “special train” using a Southem Pacific locomotive as far as Ludlow, where a Tonopah & Tidewater engine brought the train into Beatty. From there a fleet of autos brought the potential investors on into Leadville. Waiting for them was a band and a grand lunch at which well over a thousand people were served. The scheme worked. A week or two after this promotion, some 330,000 shares of stock in Westem Lead Mines had been sold. In late January 1926 that stock had been selling at $1.57 a share. At the end of March Julian’s scheme had boosted the price to $3.30. It did not seem to matter that the nearest water was some two and a half miles down the canyon at Klare Spring. Leadville was on the map. In April the townsite of Leadville was laid out with 1,749 lots in 93 blocks. Businesses opened and they advertised in the newly formed newspaper, the Leadville Chronicle. On June 25th, the post office opened, and Leadville’s prosperity seemed assured. There were a few problems, however. By this time Julian was under investigation for securities irregularities. And then there was the matter of the lead ore. There wasn’t any! The speculative bubble burst and by December 31, 1926, the post office closed its doors in Leadville for the last time. So 1926 was the best of times and the worst of times for Leadville. It was born, matured, and died all in the course of twelve months. In spite of its short life, Leadville was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. A half-mile below Leadville the geology suddenly makes a dramatic change. With the change of geology Titus Canyon proper is entered. A Park Service interpretive sign “Where Rocks Bend” explains why these layers seem to bend sharply. It is in fact an optical illusion.

Klare Spring is reached two and a half miles below Leadville. This is the only water in the canyon. Prehistoric Indians knew the site well. They left their petroglyphs etched in a rock outcrop just up the canyon from the spring. When these primitive rock carvings portray things like bighom sheep, the object, if not the message, can be easily recognized. Many of the drawings are abstract geometric designs and the meaning of these has been lost in antiquity. Even present-day Native Americans are not sure of their interpretation. Archaeologists have many theories as to what these doodles mean, but in fact, nobody knows for sure.

At a point 1.9 miles below Klare Spring look to the left where the flat surface of the bedding plane in the marble is exposed. On top of the gray limestone rock is a thin layer of hardened brown mud containing fossil ripple marks.

Four miles below Klare Spring begin the narrows that so delight tourists. For the next 1.7 miles the canyon walls soar hundreds of feet up, but are barely twenty feet apart in some places. Six miles below Klare Spring, 23.8 miles from Highway 374, the magic of the canyon suddenly ends. The roadway abruptly leaves the canyon and you find yourself overlooking the vast expanse of Death Valley. It’s only 2.5 miles down the alluvial fan to the paved road that leads to Scotty’s Castle.[Jim’s note: This same road also heads south toward Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek.] END EXCERPT